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Last month, I got a surprise in my inbox. After submitting my work to several companies, I received interest from the HR Recruiter from Gog.com. A game platform and marketplace based in Warsaw. The job was a graphic design position. One of my strengths, the other requirement? Illustration! Wow! Perfect. Cool studio, a lot of great perks, make new friends with creative people. Sounded like a dream job.

We scheduled an interview via Skype. It went really well. I met my potential team leader and we talk for over an hour and half. It went really. The excitement was building. They said they wanted to think and get back to me and I would be asked to do an art test next. Then if all went well, to Warsaw for a formal interview.

Original Game Art

I was asked to do an art test. I received a brief on the task, their logo, a layout template and a flattened JPG of one of their recently added games. Revenant. A classic RPG game. My task was to update the look and feel of the art and create a promotional graphic for its launch.

I wasn't given a deadline but I wanted to get it done as best and as timely as I could.

Here's what I did.

1. Masked the character out in Adobe Photoshop.

2. Recreated the logo in Adobe Illustrator.

3. Worked out a design rough in Photoshop.

4. After working on a rough design I decided to scratch my original idea and went to the CG Textures web site for inspiration. That did the trick. I got inspired and decided to photobash a bit after downloading a few images from them. Highly recommend them.

5. Took an archway, old door and angel from a tombstone to created my initial background.

Archway

Added Angel and Door

6. I added the character to the design, added some brush work, adjustment levels and worked on color next.

The main character is added

Colors starting to come together and initial placement of the logo

7. Okay so far, so good. I am liking it. Kinda. Something is missing. I take a look at the art test template and noticed something. In all their art, the logo is centered. Important as I realized the layout is has a Smart object place holder and uses the graphic in three slightly different sizes.

8. I find a cool column, mask it, duplicate it and center the logo. For a final touch, I create a shadow for the Revenant character. Done! It seems to work. I then pop it into Gog's template and send it off to Gog.com.

My new art

Added my art to Gog's template

9. So, on pins and needles, I wait. Not very long after, I receive word from the recruiter. She wants to know my salary request. Uh-oh... At this point I have already researched apartments, the recruiter kindly had already sent me estimated living expenses for Warsaw. I do some homework on salaries. I have been a freelancer for a long time. All this seems almost foreign to me. Actually it is, when I think about it. Gog.com is owned by CD Projekt Red. (Creators of Witcher) Turns out their median average salary in Los Angeles is $151,000. Wow. not helpful as Poland is a different animal altogether. I look at Polish graphic design position salaries. Yikes!!! They are much lower than in the US and western Europe but relative when based on the cost of living here... somewhat. I hate this part. I factor in the cost of living, the type of apartment, the standard of living I would like and send my request. I wait. I knew right away actually. It was going to be out of their budget. Before I sent my salary request, I read reviews about Gog from actual employees. Apparently they have a lot of uncompensated overtime. I factored that in as well. Needless to say, my intuition was correct. I was over their budget and sadly not offered to proceed further. They felt even with a formal interview they could not make an offer they felt I would be interested in. I appreciated that. I was disappointed but it was exciting to try and sure it would have been really fun. I am curious to know what their offer would have been. They never said. I read one should never give a salary request here. Make them make an offer to you. I will heed that advice from now on if another similar opportunity comes my way.